Red Sox ready to tender contract to Jonathan Papelbon

According to a major league source, the Red Sox will almost certainly tender a contract to Jonathan Papelbon (“unless something cataclysmic happens in the next few hours”), making him eligible for a final round of arbitration. Papelbon, who made $9.35 million in 2010 (his second season of arbitration eligibility), and may be in line to make just more than $11 million for ’11. If the Red Sox had chosen to non-tender Papelbon, he would have been eligible for free agency. Thursday is the deadline for teams to tender contracts to players eligible for arbitration.